Man gets 6-month sentence for recycling fraud

OAKLAND, Calif. — A San Francisco Bay Area man is facing a 6-month jail sentence for his role in a scheme to haul 1,800 pounds of empty aluminum cans from Washington to California and trade them in for cash.

Mark Oldfield, a spokesman for CalRecycle, California’s waste management agency, says Mario Morales Nolasco of Oakland and four accomplices loaded the empty cans into trucks in Washington, which has no redemption program, and brought them to California. Authorities estimate that the men defrauded the state of $329,887.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Nolasco pleaded no contest to felony charges on March 6, and was sentenced to 120 days in jail and five years of probation.